Workers and Wage Slaves, Maximum Age, Minimum Wage, On the Job; Banks and Wall Street, Taxes, Class Warfare, Antiestablishmentarianism, Homeless; Chinese Exodus; Tau Day; Science Under Siege; Earth and Moon, Space Travel; Universe

Workers and Wages Slaves

• Meet 204 Republicans Who Don't Want to Punish Companies That Steal Workers' Wages
• Days After Decrying Flat Wages, McConnell Proposes Lowering Wages by $13 Billion
• How Walmart's Low Wages Cost All Americans, Not Just Its Workers
• Canada: Walmart wrong to fire unionized workers, high court says—"Supreme Court rules 5-2 in favour of 190 Quebec who lost jobs after first unionized Walmart shut its doors."
• Unions Fear This SCOTUS Case Could Bring Their 'Final Destruction'
• American Workers Need Overtime Protections
• Qatar police respond to fight at Sheraton Doha hotel

Maximum Age

• Tech industry job ads: Older workers need not apply
• Faygo accused of age discrimination - by founder's grandson
• Miss Delaware, 24, loses crown for being too old
• Singer sued for being too old and ugly for Pink cover band

Minimum Wage

• Zillow's Rich Barton on the $15 minimum wage, Uber regulations, and why the U.S. is filled with entrepreneurial 'freedom fighters'
• Ikea to raise its average minimum hourly wage to $10.76 LA Times
• Massachusetts: Minimum wage increase doesn't add up to a living wage—"The state's new $11 minimum wage –the highest in the nation -- will make low-wage workers' lives a little more stable, and less stressful. But not necessarily comfortable."
• A Minimum Wage That Makes More Sense—"Accounting for regional price differences is sound strategy when setting state or local minimum wages." NYT

On the Job

• Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek)
• Taking a Vacation May Actually Save Your Career—"Workaholism is hurting the American economy."
• Unblinking Eyes Track Employees: Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad—"Abundant data, smart software and cheap sensors are beginning to make it possible to measure and monitor employees as never before." NYT
• An Employee Dies, and the Company Collects the Insurance—"Many companies insure their employees’ lives with themselves as beneficiaries, a practice some deride as immoral. But companies say the policies, for which they get tax breaks, help them bolster pensions and health care." NYT
• Obama Says US Should Offer Paid Maternity Leave—Right-wingers say no [Salon]
• North Dakota coffee shop has no employees, runs entirely on the honor system…and it's working
• Job interviews reward narcissists, punish applicants from modest cultures

Banks and Wall Street

• Ex-Goldman Trader Calls $8.25 Million Bonus Unfair, Told Mom He'd Get More—They really are too big to jail.
• New York attorney general accuses Barclays of 'dark pool' fraud
• Grassley's Hunt For An Obama Insider Trading Scandal Backfires On GOP
• House GOP Staffer Allegedly Changed His Story In Insider Trading Probe
• House Passes Bill To Aid Koch Brothers, Deregulate Wall Street
• China's commodity-lending fraud just got $15 billion bigger

Taxes

• Krugman: Sympathy for the Trustafarians NYT
• Higher taxes do not kill jobs—"County-level BLS data tell the true story about job growth."
• Tax cuts in Kansas have cost the state money — and job creation's been terrible WaPo
  

Class Warfare

• Robert Reich on America's Koch Problem
• In US, over 75 per cent of conservatives say the poor 'have it easy'
• Elizabeth Warren says the U.S. economy is rigged. Many conservatives agree. WaPo
• Conspiracy of the plutocrats: Secrets of the wealth-inequality explosion revealed Salon
• Detroit's Water War: a tap shut-off that could impact 300,000 people—"A right-wing state and corporate push to cut off water is economic shock therapy at its most ruthless and racist, but resistance is growing."
• Debtors Prisons Are Taking the US Back to the 19th Century—"In recent years, more and more cells have been filled with poor individuals who are caught in a vile trap, unable to pay court fines."
• What wealth gap? Danish welfare narrows disparity WaPo

Antiestablishmentarianism

• The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex CIA spy—"The man who trained more than 66 countries in open source methods calls for re-invention of intelligence to re-engineer Earth."
• Nick Hanauer: The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats Politico
• The United States Of Cruelty—"We are cheap. We are suspicious. We will shoot first. It does not have to be this way. Like Lincoln before us, it is time to do something about it."

Homeless

• 73-year-old veteran loses his job for allegedly giving a muffin to a homeless man
• Chinese tycoon's free lunch for homeless New Yorkers backfires—"Controversial businessman Chen Guangbiao angered homeless people in New York after promising them $300 each and failing to deliver."
• Flipside: Woman launches mobile showers for the homeless—"A San Francisco woman creates a "shower bus" to help accommodate the city's 3,500 homeless people. Vanessa Johnston reports."

Chinese Exodus

• Disappointed Immigration Applicants Sue Canada—"More than 1,400 Chinese plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the Canadian immigration authorities after Canada announced it was canceling its immigrant investor program along with tens of thousands of outstanding applications." NYT
• Mainland Chinese line up for Australia's 'millionaire visa'
• Cashed-up Chinese students turn to Australia
• China targets officials who sent families abroad—"China's anti-graft campaign is now targeting officials who have sent their spouses and children abroad, where they can create channels to potentially funnel illicit gains and establish footholds for eventual escape from the mainland."

Tau Day

• The brain injury that made me a math genius—"Twelve years ago, Jason Padgett had never made it past pre-algebra. And then a violent mugging changed everything." Salon
• Notation, notation, notation: a brief history of mathematical symbols—The symbols we use every day have fascinating and surprisingly recent origins, explains author Joseph Mazur in his new book."
• The secret history of numbers: How math shapes our lives in amazing, unpredictable ways—"The relationship between people and numbers is so much more fascinating than simple dollars and cents." Salon

Science Under Siege

• Universities 'get poor value' from academic journal-publishing firms—"Research finds secrecy over contracts has stopped some institutions realising they are paying too much for journals."
• The U.S. Should Invest In Science, Not War
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson: US need not lose its edge in science—"The famed astrophysicist says there's a reason some chemical elements are named for places in the US -- and that we don't have to leave those glory days in the past."
• Asia's Cult of Intelligence—"With its 'cult of ignorance and anti-intellectualism' the U.S. risks falling behind rivals in Asia."
• xkcd: People are stupid

Earth and Moon

• Largest Active Volcano on Earth Rumbles Back to Life—"Recent quake swarms signal that magma is squeezing into Mauna Loa's magma storage chambers in the same spots below where the 1984 eruption occurred."
• Earth and Moon Are 60 Million Years Older Than Previously Believed
• Traces of another world found on the Moon—"Researchers have found evidence of the world that crashed into the Earth billions of years ago to form the Moon."
• The Moon is Now a Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Strange New World Discovered: The 'Mega Earth'

Space Travel

• A Klingon is currently commander of the International Space Station
• Astronaut Sally Ride and the Burden of Being The First
• The Curiosity rover has been on Mars for one Martian year. It celebrated by taking a selfie. WaPo

Universe

• Big Bang blunder bursts the multiverse bubble—"Premature hype over gravitational waves highlights gaping holes in models for the origins and evolution of the Universe, argues Paul Steinhardt."
• Light from huge explosion 12 billion years ago reaches Earth
• NASA detects mysterious signal ​240 million light years away from Earth
• The Timey Wimey Spacey Wacey Explanation of Relativity
• Avoiding "Sagan Syndrome." Why Astronomers and Journalists should pay heed to Biologists about ET.
• Star Within a Star: Weird Stellar 'Hybrid' Discovered—Red supergiant replaced its core with a neutron star.workers
• Collection of three supermassive black holes detected
• Mystery object in lake on Saturn's moon Titan intrigues scientists—"Nasa's Cassini probe took image last year as it passed by planet's largest moon – nothing seen when other images taken."
• Titan's Atmosphere May be Older than Saturn, a New Study Suggests

Workers and Wages Slaves, IT Crowd, Minimum Wage; Banks and Wall Street, Class Warfare, Corporatocracy; Tea Party, Obamanation, Politics and Partisanship, Vote Machinations, Campaign Finance Deform, Christie, Hillary; IRS; Redskins

Workers and Wage Slaves

• The Economy May Be Improving. Worker Pay Isn't. NYT
• The Downward Ramp—"The jobs crisis has begun to affect even highly skilled college graduates, who are taking jobs that once went to people with fewer skills." NYT
• I got my Master's, couldn't find a job and lived on food stamps. Now stop calling me a 'welfare queen'
• 5 reasons US workers hate their jobs more than they used to
• Young workers hate their jobs WaPo
• It's Official: The Boomerang Kids Won't Leave—"One in five young adults lives with his or her parents. It might be a recessionary blip — or the dawn of a whole new economic age." NYT
• Elizabeth Warren on creating jobs: 'This isn't magic, we actually know how to do this'

IT Crowd

• This IT worker had to train an H-1B replacement—"U.S. workers protested job losses to foreign workers by displaying American flags in their cubicles."
• Should tech workers settle "no-poach" case for $324M? Judge has real doubts—"One plaintiff says the deal isn't fair to workers, and the judge is listening."
• Robot doctors, online lawyers and automated architects: the future of the professions?—"Advances in technology have long been recognised as a threat to manual labour. Now highly skilled, knowledge-based jobs that were once regarded as safe could be at risk. How will they adapt to the digital age?"

Minimum Wage

• IMF urges U.S. to raise minimum wage
• Massachusetts approves $11 minimum wage
• Obamas Want Daughters To Get Taste Of Life On Minimum Wage
• 'Subminimum wage' for disabled workers called exploitative—"Critics of program that pays disabled workers 'subminimum wage' say it should be abolished. Others say it's an important tool to provide training and employment."

Banks and Wall Street

• Wikileaks: Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) - Financial Services Annex—"Despite the failures in financial regulation evident during the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and calls for improvement of relevant regulatory structures, proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets."
• City of Miami sues JPMorgan, claims mortgage discrimination
• Ex-Goldman director goes to prison, still owes $13.9 million fine
• Senate hearing examines flaws in stock markets
• Why a guy making $100,000 a year can't get a bank account WaPo
• Greenpeace suffers $5.2-million loss after rogue employee's currency investment flops
• Master Currency Counterfeiter Prints Millions, Says 'Screw You' to US

Class Warfare

• Class in America: The Fault Lines
• Reich: Real Business Leaders Want to Save Capitalism
• Arizona GOPer Went Birther, Compared Poor To 'Lazy Pigs' In Anonymous Blog Comments
• No, The Poor Aren't Poor Because They Refuse To Work
• America's Dying Factories Are Widening Income Inequality
• Justice Sotomayor: Inequality Could Trigger 'Unrest' In U.S.
• U.S. appeals court overturns L.A. ban on homeless living in vehicles
• British public wrongly believe rich face highest tax burden, new research shows—"Study shows poorest 10% pay eight percentage points more of their income, prompting calls for more progressive system."
• Australia's richest 1% own as much as bottom 60%, says Oxfam—"Income inequality has risen since mid-1990s and nine richest people now have greater net worth than poorest 4.54 million."

Corporatocracy

• How America became uncompetitive and unequal—"How corporate mergers contribute to economic inequality." WaPo
• The Corporate Daddy: Walmart, Starbucks, and the Fight Against Inequality—"Walmart, the world's largest public corporation, is a big part of the income-gap problem. It could be a big part of the solution." NYT
• The True Cost of Hidden Money—"A Piketty Protégé's Theory on Tax Havens." NYT
• Medtronic Is Biggest Yet to Renounce U.S. Tax Citizenship
• Legislation Introduced to Stop American Corporations from Pretending to Be Foreign Companies
• EU launches attack against corporate tax avoidance—"The EU has taken steps to curb tax avoidance by global corporations. In recent months, criticism in the budget-strapped bloc has mounted over tax loopholes exploited by companies such as Apple, Google and others."
• Thrown Out of Court—"How corporations became people you can't sue."
• Halliburton Ruling Could Be A Big Win For Big Pharma, Wall Street

Tea Party

• Eugene Robinson: Overdosing on tea—"The Republican Party's reliance on tea party support is like an addict's dependence on a dangerous drug: It may feel good at first, but eventually it eats you alive." WaPo
• Teatopia—"What would actually happen if Tea Partiers controlled Congress and Rand Paul was president?"
• Unwitting tea party folk do the bidding of big business LA Times
• David Brat's Success Due to 19,000 new primary voters
• Reince Priebus After Eric Cantor Loss: I Don't Think GOP Is Divided
• Muslim reporter describes being ridiculed at the Texas GOP convention—"Republican chairman: 'Would the state party ever condone that? Absolutely not.'

Obamanation

• Krugman: Yes He Could—"Health Care and Climate: President Obama's Big Deals" NYT
• GOP Rep: Obama Impeachment 'Probably Could' Pass The House
• Conservatives Uncover Obama Plot to Destroy Phil Mickelson—"According to the latest conspiracy theory, Obama sent the FBI and SEC to investigate the pro golfer because he once complained about high tax rates."
• Here's every presidential executive order going back to George Washington

Politics and Partisanship

• Poll: Congress historic midterm low Politico
• America prepares to reelect the Congress it loathes WaPo
• Congress is making a lot of history! (By being so unpopular) WaPo
• The shocking numbers: Americans are dangerously ignorant on politics—"The scary thing about the man who upset Eric Cantor last week is how familiar his brand of ignorance is." Salon
• Time to Stand Up and Fight for a More Perfect Union—"The irony of American politics is that the right is far weaker than it appears and the left far stronger than it asserts."

Vote Machinations

• End Polarization. Make Everyone Vote.
• Middle Class Squeeze: As incomes slide, voters check out
• AZ Candidate Who Changed His Name To 'Cesar Chavez' Thrown Off Ballot
• Fox News paid Scott Brown $136,000
• Alaska's Don Young violated US House ethics—"The House Ethics Committee has found that U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska violated House rules by using campaign funds for personal trips and accepting improper gifts."
• Shadowy Obama Megadonor Indicted On Fraud And Manslaughter Charges
• SCOTUS Rules For Anti-Abortion Group In Case About Campaign Lies

Campaign Finance Deform

• Prosecutors: Walker's Campaign 'Tacitly Admitted' Breaking The Law
• Gov. Scott Walker's Campaign Violations—"There clearly is plenty to fear from independent spending groups that raise unlimited dollars." NYT
• The Koch brothers may spend $290 million on this election. That's how much 5,270 American households make in a year. WaPo
• Campaign-Finance Reform Has to Be Cross-Partisan—"Democrats love to talk about cutting the influence of money in politics, but are they actually any more eager to fix it than Republicans?"
• After Lindsey Graham met billionaire, supportive super PAC secured donation an hour later
• Cronies, corruption and cash: Lawrence Lessig on why we need a super PAC to end all super PACs Salon

Christie

• Despite budget gap, Christie holding firm that business tax cuts are off-limits
• Chris Christie to GOP donors on bridge scandal: 'You'll get over it' LA Times
• Prosecutor Is Closing In on Gov. Christie—"Indictments against four cronies are near certain, sources say. Only question is if David Samson, Christie's longtime mentor, will flip."

Hillary

• The GOP's weapon against Hillary? A giant squirrel
• Clinton: Matt Drudge, Karl Rove Planting 'False Information'
• Man who beat NSA in T-shirt parody case wins against Ready for Hillary

IRS

• Lawmakers fume over lost emails in IRS probe
• Congressman asks NSA to provide metadata for "lost" IRS e-mails
• Attkisson On Missing IRS Documents: If The Emails Really Are Lost, 'That's Quite A Story In Itself'
• IRS Commissioner To Testify About Lois Lerner's Lost Emails
• Republicans, at Hearing on Lost Emails, Accuse I.R.S. Chief of Lying NYT
• Drum: Yet Another IRS Scandal That Isn't

Redskins

• Federal agency cancels Redskins trademark registration, says name is disparaging WaPo
• Retired Native American Chief Would Be Offended If Redskins Did Change Name
• What About the Celtics?
• The Onion: Redskins' Name Only Offensive If You Think About What It Means
• The Onion: Redskins' Kike Owner Refuses To Change Team's Offensive Name
• The Onion: Washington Redskins Change Their Name To The D.C. Redskins
• The Onion: Washington Redskins Ease Tensions With Native Americans By Adding Bottle Of Booze To Logo
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The Washington Redskins
• The Daily Show: Thursday Night Law

Workers and Wage Slaves, Unemployment, Minimum Wage, On the Job; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability, Credit Suisse, Taxes, Class War; Corporatocracy, Amazon.com, Reviews

Workers and Wage Slaves

• The Republican War on Workers' Rights—"State legislatures have favored employers over their employees." NYT
• Here's The Painful Truth About What It Means To Be 'Working Poor' In America
• Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations
• Medical residents' pay: Doctors in training are organizing for collective bargaining
• McDonald's vacates headquarters due to worker protests —Over 100 arrested.
• For Chevron, $6 a day is apparently too much pay for Cambodian workers

Unemployment

• Poll: 47% of Unemployed Have 'Completely Given Up' Looking for a Job
• Cutting Off Emergency Unemployment Benefits Hasn't Pushed People Back to Work
• Unemployment: It's Not Personal NYT
• More Gloom for the Long-Term Unemployed, from Alan Krueger WSJ

Minimum Wage

• The fight for a global minimum wage
• Show This To The Next Person Who Says High Minimum Wages Kill Jobs
• Michigan: Bill boosting minimum wage to $9.20 an hour to get hearing in state House
• Swiss voters reject $25 minimum wage

On the Job

• No matter what the boss says about flextime, get to work early
• Why Are We So Busy?—"Since the 1930s, U.S. G.D.P. has grown, in real terms, by a factor of sixteen. Why hasn’t that wealth translated into more leisure time?"
• Man Asks Mike Rowe for "Life Advice"

Banks and Wall Street

• "It's total moral surrender": Matt Taibbi unloads on Wall Street, inequality and our broken justice system—"Matt Taibbi, author of 'The Divide,' tells Salon about Geithner's excuses, Piketty's success and Nixon's cronies." Salon
• Krugman: Springtime for Bankers—"The government saved Wall Street but left the real economy behind." NYT
• Occupy activist Cecily McMillan sentenced to three months in jail—"McMillan to also serve five years' probation for deliberately elbowing a New York police officer at a protest in 2012.

Accountability

• Convicted of Felonies, Banks Are Allowed to Stay in Business NYT
• Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab Accounts Linked To Mexican Drug Cartels: SEC
• Barclays Bank fined £26m for gold price failings
• JPMorgan, HSBC and Credit Agricole accused of euro rate-fixes
• JPMorgan Ex-CEO for China Investment Bank Arrested, Caixin Says

Credit Suisse

• Credit Suisse pleads guilty to U.S. criminal charge in tax probe—"Swiss bank Credit Suisse on Monday pleaded guilty to a criminal charge for its role in helping Americans dodge taxes, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, and will pay more than $2.5 billion as part of an agreement with U.S. authorities."
• Credit Suisse still too big to jail despite guilty plea
• Big fine 'won't do much damage': Credit Suisse CEO
• Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States?—"The conventional wisdom is that revoking a large bank's license can trigger potential systemic consequences. But that's not the case here."

Taxes

• Federal Judges Are Cutting Rich Tax Cheats Big Sentencing Breaks
• IRS: 318,000 fed workers owe $3.3B in back taxes
• Why Republicans Love Taxing the Poor
• To Lift the Poor, You Can't Avoid Taxing the Rich—"It would be nice if we could tackle inequality with a growth approach and without some sacrifices from the wealthy, but that path simply doesn't exist." NYT

Class War

• Billionaire Home Depot Founder Is Not Really Sorry For Nazi Comparison
• Protesters angry drunken Ferrari driver got work release sentence—More affluenza at work.
• Martins Beach billionaire evades questions on stand
• As Court Fees Rise, The Poor Are Paying The Price
• Pope Demands 'Legitimate Redistribution' Of Wealth—Also: The Piketty pontiff: How Pope Francis is bringing Catholicism back to its anti-inequality roots Salon
• 'Stunning' Data Proves, Yet Again, Housing The Homeless Would Actually Save Taxpayers Big Time
• Tony Abbott's daughter was given scholarship for $60,000 design degree—"Frances Abbott was awarded a chairman's scholarship for bachelors degree at prestigious Sydney institute where a donor to her father sits as chair of board of governors."

Corporatocracy

• One dollar, one vote—"When it comes to setting policy, the views of businesses and the rich seem to count for more."
• Thanks to the Roberts Court, Corporations Have More Constitutional Rights Than Actual People
• Public Justice's Paul Bland Explains What Media Should Know About Class Actions And The Pro-Business Roberts Court
• Looks Like Patent Trolls Have Won This Round As Even Weakened Patent Reform Likely To Die—US Senate wusses out.
• GM to pay $35 million over delayed recall—No arrests?

Amazon.com

• Hachette Says Amazon Is Delaying Delivery of Some Books—"Amazon, which controls more than a third of the book trade in the United States, is marking many books published by Hachette Book Group as not available for at least two or three weeks." NYT
• Goodbye, Amazon: We're through!—"I quit Amazon because of its monopolistic tactics. Is it impossible for book publishers to do the same?" Salon
• Amazon Loses Bid for ".Amazon" Domain Name—In the tradition of WWF forcing WWE to submit.

Reviews

• Lawyers threaten redditor over negative router review on Amazon—Streisand Effect leads to Amazon rescinding Mediabridge's selling priveleges.
• Utah couple win against company that charged for bad online review—Kleargear responds and gripes.
• California: Bill would create new protection for shoppers who write online reviews
• When Rave Reviews Become Risky Re: Internet Reviews
• Docs get Yelped! 1 in 4 patients now read online physician reviews
• Lincoln City hotel sues for defamation after anonymous person posts scathing TripAdvisor review
• Italian antitrust watchdog investigates TripAdvisor reviews, Expedia pricing deals
• Rating or Defaming?

Workers and Wage Slaves, Minimum Wage; Banks and Wall Street, Financial Crisis; Bitcoin; Politics, Economy, Corporatocracy, Tax Dodge, NJ Corruption; Grand Ol' Tea Party; Vote Machinations, Campaign Finance Deform; Media; Sterling Racism

Worker and Wage Slaves

• Fast-food workers announce global protest, walkouts set for 33 countries—"Employees plan to expand movement to demand better pay and working conditions across the world [on May 15]."
• Japanese Restaurant Eliminates Tipping And Just Pays A Higher Wage
• Republicans Block Hearing on Long-Term Jobless Benefits
• My personal Wal-Mart nightmare: You won't believe what life is like working there—"The president's visiting my store Friday. He won't see how I sleep on my son's floor and eat potato chips for lunch." Salon
• Pay Violations Rampant in Low-Wage Industries Despite Enforcement Efforts—"If you steal from your employer, you're going to be hauled out of the workplace in handcuffs. But if your employer steals from you, you'll be lucky to get your money back."
• Samsung offers apology for workers' leukemia—"Ten people have died after working in Samsung's semiconductor plants, an industry health rights group said."

Minimum Wage

• The Minimum Wage Loophole That's Screwing Over Waiters and Waitresses
• Vermont Passes The Highest State Minimum Wage In The Country
• The GOP and the minimum wage—"Why the GOP argument against raising the minimum wage is really an argument against having a minimum wage at all."

Banks and Wall Street

• Elizabeth Warren: Obama Team 'Chose Wall Street Instead Of American Families'
• Krugman: Now That's Rich—"Big surprise! Hedge fund managers make a lot of money. But there are some lessons there." NYT
• The SEC Has Revealed Astounding Corruption in Private Equity—"And, for once, the commission is not letting them get away with it."
• Thomson Reuters settles lawsuit with whistle-blowing ex-employee—"Thomson Reuters has reached a settlement agreement with a former staffer who sued the firm for wrongful termination, claiming he lost his job for whistle-blowing."
• How Wall Street Financial Fees Choke Our Cities

Financial Crisis

• Why Only One Top Banker Went to Jail for the Financial Crisis—"The economic catastrophe of 2008 was the largest of its kind since the Depression. Who's taking the fall?" NYT
• Morgan Stanley CEO Doesn't Believe More Bankers Should Have Gone To Jail For Financial Crisis
• U.S. attorney general says banks may face criminal cases soon
• University economics teaching isn't an education: it's a £9,000 lobotomy—"Economics took a battering after the financial crisis, but faculties are refusing to teach alternative views. It's as if there's only one way to run an economy."
• Occupy Wall Street activist found guilty of assaulting police officer—Too small not to jail.

Bitcoin

• SEC's Investor "Warning" On Bitcoin Could Stifle Innovation
• Federal Election Commission approves bitcoin donations to political committees—Guess money is money. WaPo
• In 18 months, feds got nearly 300 complaints about Bitcoin miner maker—"Federal Trade Commission received worldwide complaints about Butterfly Labs."

Politics

• George H.W. Bush received a profile in courage award. All it took was rewriting history.—"Bush was honored for being willing to break his famous 'Read my lips: no new taxes' pledge. But the history is more complicated--and less flattering." WaPo
• San Francisco Chinatown duo claim FBI entrapment in organised-crime case SCMP
• The Farce Is Complete: Joe Biden's Son Joins Board Of Largest Ukraine Gas Producer

Economy

• All of the US government's spending will soon be available on one website
• Bipartisan House bill calls on Congress to fly coach
• Missouri Lawmakers Override Veto, Enact Tax Cut—"Missouri's Republican-led Legislature enacted the state's first income tax rate reduction in almost a century Tuesday by overriding the veto of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, who has denounced it as a reckless financial experiment."
• CNBC survey shows millionaires want higher taxes to fix inequality
• GOP's fake poverty push gets a new charlatan: Rob Portman's latest ploy Salon
• Paul Ryan's Approach To Poverty Is Straight Out Of The 19th Century

Corporatocracy

• GOP Lawmakers Say Yes To $310 Billion For Business, But $12 Million For At-Risk Kids? Nope
• Conservative Pro-Growth Policies Don't Actually Produce Any Growth
• Surprise! 'Pro-business' policies hurt state economic growth LATimes

Tax Dodge

• U.S. wants Credit Suisse to plead guilty in tax dispute: report
• Swiss company agrees to pay $4.4m fine for helping US tax dodgers—"US thanks Swisspartners for 'extraordinary cooperation but Credit Suisse expected to face big fine and criminal charges."
• David Cameron: Taxes will rise unless we can raid bank accounts—"David Cameron claims he will "have to put up taxes" unless tax officials are given draconian powers to raid people's bank accounts"

NJ Corruption

• Governor's Office Ignored Report That Kelly, Stepien Knew About Bridgegate—"Drewniak says he told Christie's chief counsel about Wildstein's claim, but pair were not questioned until more than a month later."
• NJ has distributed less than 25 percent of Sandy aid—"New Jersey's latest quarterly report shows the state has distributed $416 million of nearly $1.83 billion in federal disaster relief aid."
• Christie Aide Uses Truly Multitudinous Variety of Adjectives, Adverbs in Denying Bridgegate Role
• Rowan Students, Alumni Protest Christie Commencement Speech

Grand Ol' Tea Party

• Fringe Factor: Democrats Boasting About Obamacare Are Just Like Nazis—"A Tennessee lawmaker compares liberal crowing about health-care signups to Germans bragging about 'train rides' for Jews, Krauthammer thinks climate change is superstition, and more."
• Lost? The Tea Party has already won, and its influence will be felt for years to come—"Out of America: It may seem to be in decline, but the Republicans' wacky wing has achieved its main aim of pushing the party to the right."
• Republican Party wants to limit primary debates: The GOP wants to assert itself in 2016.
• The GOP Has Finally Found a Way to Defeat the Tea Party—"Electability is trumping ideological purity—just as the establishment had planned."
• There Are No Mainstream Republicans Left in North Carolina—"Thom Tillis, who just won the state’s Republican primary, has been the point-man in a sadly effective anti-government project." NYT
• Koch brothers face an unexpected new foe: tea party conservatives
• Poll: For the midterms, a tilt to the GOP

Vote Machinations

• GOP vote scheme finally imploding: Why the end may be here—"From landmark ruling in Wisconsin, to new signs from top Republicans in other states, a shameful ploy may unravel." Salon
• Appeals Court Puts Brakes On Judge Who Shut Down Scott Walker Investigation—"One day after a federal judge dramatically shut down the secret 'John Doe' probe investigating Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) 2012 recall election, a federal appeals court on Wednesday stayed the lower judge's ruling."
• Lawsuit Accuses Virginia Republicans Of 'Racial Gerrymandering'
• This is what America would look like without gerrymandering
• Why Karl Rove Uses Dirty Tricks: They Work—"Karl Rove reportedly hinted that Hillary Clinton may have brain damage from a fall—then quickly backed away. His history suggests it's a calculated maneuver."

Campaign Finance Deform

• Al Gore: 'Our democracy has been hacked'—"The average member of the House and Senate has to spend five hours per day begging rich people for money. Begging rich interests for money!" Politico
• Vermont first state to call for constitutional convention to get money out of politics
• Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: 'Money Is Not Speech'
• Wendy Davis Attacks Greg Abbott's Oversight of Cancer Agency—Claimed "money earmarked for lifesaving medical research was slipped into major Republican donors' pockets instead."

Media

• Glenn Greenwald: U.S. Corporate Media is "Neutered, Impotent and Obsolete"
• Warren Buffett, Joe Nocera and 'Fessing Up to Readers—"When a critical column is built on a faulty premise, the writer needs to tell his readers what happened and why." NYT
• Impeachment, Fox News-style: Wing-nuts go mad, mainstream media follows them off the cliff — again—"Objective" media covered Iraq and '08 meltdown so brilliantly. Danger: False balance crowd wants impeachment next." Salon
• Stewart Strikes Back At Limbaugh's Hashtag Hate: #F*@KYOURUSH

Sterling Racism

• Befuddled Donald Sterling: 'What New Recording?'
• Community manager fired after controversial tweets about embattled NBA owner Donald Sterling
• CNN exclusive: Donald Sterling insists he's no racist, still slams Magic Johnson
• Donald Sterling's interview disaster: Rich old racist self-destructs to Anderson Cooper Salon
• The Daily Show: John Hodgman wants to buy the LA Clippers

Workers and Wage Slaves, Millenials, Occupational Hazards, Economy; Obamacare; Class Warfare, Politics, GOP, Bridgegate, Corruption, Taxes, Vote Machinations, Campaign Finance Deform, Plutoligarchy, Koch Suckers

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Loss Of Unemployment Benefits Has Now Cost Almost $5 Billion As Congress Dithers
• Robert Reich: Blame big money for our dysfunctional economy—"Former secretary of labor weighs in on our latest underwhelming jobs report and the implications of 'McCutcheon.'" Salon
• Nearly 90% of fast-food workers allege wage theft, survey finds
• McDonald's ex-managers sound off to Salon: Non-existent breaks and illegal overtime—"Former managers says the giant chain's employees were illegally denied their pay - and the corporation's to blame." Salon
• Walmart Realizes It's Losing Billions Of Dollars By Denying Workers More Hours
• Walmart living wage: If the company paid its employees more, how much would prices go up?
• Politicians violated VW workers' rights—"[Tenn. Gov.] Haslam, according to the documents, essentially offered Volkswagen $300 million in taxpayer dollars for plant expansion — but only if the plant remained union-free."

Occupational Hazards

• This GOP House Candidate Proposed Eliminating the Weekend
• UPS Fires 250 Employees For Staging A 90-Minute Protest To Defend Co-Worker
• Woman allegedly fired for checking her email during maternity leave Salon
• Four More Shipbreaking Workers Die in Bangladesh
• Labour markets: A mighty contest—"Job destruction by robots could outweigh creation."

Millenials

• The First Person to Talk to Millennials Like Human Beings Will Run the World—"A new study says Millennials will put an end to the two-party system in America. Will the people currently in power learn to talk to them like people before it all happens?"
• Millennials Mired in Wealth Gap as Older Americans Gain: Economy
• 260,000 graduates in minimum wage jobs

Economy

• Wider U.S. trade deficit to weigh on first-quarter GDP
• Pro-Democrat group says 9 of the 10 poorest states are Republican—Politifact says: Mostly true.
• If homeless people had a safe place to live, taxpayers could save millions—"By providing housing to its homeless, Charlotte, N.C., saved $1.8 million, research at the University of North Carolina–Charlotte found."

Obamacare

• TV Networks Denied Obama Airtime To Tout Obamacare Enrollment
• Facing Obamacare deadline, more young people signed up in March WaPo
• Medicaid boosted by 3 million, bringing 'Obamacare' sign-ups to 10 million—"The numbers may boost Democrats' assertion that 'Obamacare' is working."
• Paul Ryan: We Can Totally Still Repeal Obamacare
• Paul Ryan's honesty problem: How he just exposed GOP's true Obamacare intentions—"Golden boy inadvertently admits GOP doesn't agree insurers should be prohibited from discriminating against the ill." Salon
• Paul Ryan: Popular parts of Obamacare too costly to keep, alternatives needed—It's called single-payer. WaPo
• GOP Candidate Touts Fake Phone Call From Obama In New Ad—Sad.
• The next GOP scheme to manufacture Obamacare "horror stories" WaPo

Class Warfare

• Sen. Sanders: Democracy vs. Oligarchy—"The great political struggle we now face is whether the United States retains its democratic heritage or whether we move toward an oligarchic form of society where the real political power rests with a handful of billionaires, not ordinary Americans."
• There's a Class War Going On and the Poor Are Getting Their Butts Kicked
• The Shocking Rise of Wealth Inequality: Is it Worse Than We Thought?
• You'll Never Guess What Just Happened to Paul Ryan's Promise to Tackle Poverty
• Ryan Unsuited to Lead 'Adult Conversation' About Poverty
• Paul Ryan's budget: Even more austerity
• Judge said du Pont heir 'will not fare well' in prison—"A Superior Court judge who sentenced a wealthy du Pont heir to probation for raping his 3-year-old daughter noted in her order that he 'will not fare well' in prison and needed treatment instead of time behind bars, court records show."
• The heir, the judge and the homeless mom: America's prison bias for the 1%

Politics

• Pro-Pot, Pro-Gay, Anti-NSA… and Running for Senate—"Meet Shenna Bellows, Maine's former ACLU chief who's looking to unseat Susan Collins with a mix of left and right issues that might appeal to millennials." This is how the Tea Party can be effectively countered.
• Tea Party Aims at Incumbents, but Falls Short—"The Tea Party has nudged Republicans to the right in Congress, but falls short when it comes to recruiting good challengers to take out incumbents." NYT
• Honey Maid ad features two father family, single father, military family and more in 'This is Wholesome' campaign

GOP

• 'Imperial Presidency' Becomes a Rallying Cry for Republicans—"While criticizing President Obama as weak, Republicans are also uniting behind a message of government overreach." NYT
• The Shame of American Politics: GOP Presidential Hopefuls now Trek to Las Vegas seeking Adelson Blessing
• Documents reveal secretive Hollywood group's shady donations to conservative politicians
• How the Right Hijacked Arizona—"Ultraconservatives have seized the state's Legislature—and the middle-of-the-road electorate has only its own apathy to blame."
• Once disgraced, Mark Sanford is unopposed—South Carolina, 'nuff said.
• The GOP's Amazing Doublespeak On Medicare And Social Security
• Senate Resolution To Honor Cesar Chavez Dies After Republican Tries To Add Border Security Language—"Senator Bob Menendez introduced a resolution to honor Cesar Chavez legacy but it was scuttled after Senator David Vitter tried to add language about border security and illegal labor."

Bridgegate

• Christie is innocent, says Christie-ordered internal review
• 'Daily Show' Has A Field Day With Christie's Self-Exonerating Report
• Chris Christie update: New Jerseyans think guv's lying about Bridgegate—"Plus: A new report shows the ways that the Christie administration used public employees to secure endorsements." Salon
• Grand Jury Convened in Christie Bridge Scandal Probe
• Why Christie isn't out of the woods just yet

Corruption

• $6 Billion Goes Missing at State Department
• Rick Scott Fundraiser Founded Drug Clinic Closed Due To Abuse Reports
• Charlie Crist: Rick Scott was 'stealing from sick people' as CEO

Taxes

• The Trillions of Dollars U.S. Companies Are Hoarding Overseas—"And a tax repatriation holiday is no way to get them to bring it all back home."
• Senate report claims Caterpillar avoided $2.4bn in US taxes—"Carl Levin's subcommittee on investigations says the equipment-maker routed money through a Swiss subsidiary."
• Congress Should Keep Lights Off on Tax Package That Nets GE Billions in Tax Breaks
• An "Army of Lobbyists" Is Quietly Fighting for Budget-Busting Corporate Tax Breaks
• Congress once again moves to extend 'tax extenders'—"Analysis: The lucrative tax breaks take billions out of the budget, at great reward to lobbyists and lawmakers."
• NY's millionaires getting hefty tax breaks

Vote Machinations

• Here's The Exact Plan The Cheating GOP Is Using To Steal The 2014 Elections
• How Republicans Rationalize Voter Suppression—"The GOP's claims of defending 'voter integrity,' 'fairness,' and 'uniformity' are complete nonsense."
• Appeals Court Finds Florida's 2012 Voter Purge Broke The Law
• State elections officials seek tighter security—"State elections officials said Wednesday that they're investigating hundreds of cases of voters who appear to have voted in two states and several dozen who appear to have voted after their deaths."
• A Well-Informed Electorate Is a Prerequisite for Democracy—Not a coincidence that public education has been constantly attacked and degraded, and substituting information with Fox-News propaganda.

Campaign Finance Deform

• Supreme Court Strikes Down Aggregate Limits On Campaign Contributions
• McCutcheon Decision Campaign Finance - The American Government Is Open For Corruption
• Critics attack Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion that the Internet will safeguard against campaign corruption
• The Supreme Court's Faulty Reasoning In McCutcheon v. FEC
• There Are No Gods on the Supreme Court—"The Supreme Court just made it easier to buy a vote in America today. So why are we still taking them so seriously?"
• Justice Roberts Hearts Billionaires—"The chief either doesn't believe, or doesn't care, that money corrupts politics."
• Justice Roberts Defends the Embattled Rich in McCutcheon
• Nancy Pelosi Slams Supreme Court's McCutcheon Ruling: 'Is This Supposed To Be A Money War?'
• I stood up to the supreme court. It just struck down democracy. What now?—"We should've seen the McCutcheon decision's blow coming. But we must still fight to get big money out of politics."
• Obama signs ban on public funding of presidential campaigns into law—"White House enacts Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, day after supreme court removed cap on campaign contributions."

Plutoligarchy

• The Court's Decision on 'McCutcheon' Will Empower the Oligarchs, Say Reformers
• Thanks to the Supreme Court, the US Just Moved One Step Closer to Full Oligarchy
• With 'McCutcheon' Ruling, An Activist Court Opts for Full-On Plutocracy
• History Shows Capitalism Begets Plutocracy

Koch Suckers

• The Koch Brothers and the Danger of American Plutocracy
• Greediest family on earth: Proof Koch brothers have just one political principle—"The Koch brothers like to pretend they're high-minded free marketers. Here's proof it's a scam." Salon
• Koch brothers vs. a bus: Why two billionaires hate a transit project in Nashville—"A bus rapid transit project is imperiled because a couple of rich guys love meddling." Salon
• Chuck Schumer: If People Know Who The Koch Brothers Are, We're Doing Something Right
• Politifact: Harry Reid says Koch brothers are richest family in the world—Mostly true.
• Charles Koch blasts "collectivists" in Wall Street Journal op-ed—"The billionaire industrialist and GOP donor says he's being unfairly maligned by for believing in liberty." Salon
• To Strike at Kochs, Democrats Revive Tactic That Hurt Romney NYT
• How to Vote Against the Koch Brothers

Workers and Wage Slaves, Minimum Wage, Kids These Days, Occupational Hazards; Corporatocracy, Food Stamps, Class War; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability; Politics, GOP, Racism, Bridgegate, Trouble in Wisconsin; Vote Machinations

Workers and Wage Slaves

• "I Don't Want to Create a Paper Trail": Inside the Secret Apple-Google Pact—"Tech workers say Silicon Valley giants conspired to keep the lid on pay."
• Steve Jobs threatened Palm's CEO, plainly and directly, court documents reveal—"Another lesson from the Silicon Valley wage theft suit, which I first reported here, is what can happen to even powerful tech CEOs who make the fatal mistake of standing up to monopoly power."
• Redfin accused of misclassifying employees as independent contractors—"Company offers its agents salaries, benefits and bonuses based on customer satisfaction."
• Living on $2.13 an Hour Plus Tips—"Philadelphia sports bar will pay over $8 million in back wages for skimming 'tip pool.'"
• Turns Out Anti-Union Volkswagen Workers May Have Screwed Themselves And The South

Minimum Wage

• CBO: Obama's minimum wage plan would cost jobs but help millions—More than 20 milllion families. WaPo
• Boehner: Suicide over minimum wage hike
• Gap Ditches the Minimum Wage, Gives Raises to 65,000 Workers

Kids These Days

• Millennials Feel Trapped in a Cycle of Internships With Little Pay and No Job Offers NYT
• Generation Y: why young job seekers want more than money—"New research shows Millennials are less interested in financial security and more concerned with job fulfilment."
• 29 Percent Of All U.S. Adults Under The Age Of 35 Are Living With Their Parents

Occupational Hazards

• Early Amazon.com investor says online retailer 'probably destroyed a million jobs
• Bill would make Maryland second state in the nation to require paid sick leave
• McDonald's employee fired after she paid to feed first responders
• Spain, Land of 10 P.M. Dinners, Asks if It's Time to Reset Clock—"A pro-efficiency movement is pushing the country be more productive by aligning with Europe's 9-to-5 schedule." NYT
• Your 60-Hour Work Week is Not a Badge of Honour

Food Stamps

• How Big Banks Are Cashing In On Food Stamps—Many benefit programs have gone high tech with debit cards and J.P. Morgan Chase and others are making a pretty penny charging users fees. What is there to be done?"
• US soldiers used $100 million in food stamps in 2013
• Without food stamps, there might be no WhatsApp—"Today, Jan Koum, the founder of WhatsApp and its biggest shareholder, is rumored to be worth more than $6 billion. But as a teenager, he was on food stamps, a recent immigrant from the Ukraine, starting over with his mother in the US."

Class War

• Why Taxpayers Will Bail Out the Rich When the Next Storm Hits—"As homeowners around the nation protest skyrocketing premiums for federal flood insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has quietly moved the lines on its flood maps to benefit hundreds of oceanfront condo buildings and million-dollar homes...."
• Why the multimillion dollar retirement is not for the middle class—"A new study advocates a pension plan that's impossible for most families, unless they have a huge income and decades to spare."
• If the 1% wants class warfare, maybe it's time to start fighting back—"What Tom Perkins and Co don't know can only make the rest of us stronger."
• B.C. property market hazy after 'millionaire visa' scrapped—"Tens of thousands of applications from wealthy investors scrapped after two years on hold."
• Little B.C. fishing club takes on U.S. billionaire

Corporatocracy

• The Creeping Expansion of Corporate Civil Rights
• Congress Is About to Shower More Tax Breaks on Corporations After Telling the Unemployed to Drop Dead
• Boeing, Second Largest Federal Contractor, Pays No Federal Income Tax in 2013
• White House: New Limits to Be Proposed on Corporate Tax Avoidance
• Samsung allegedly pressures Korean newspaper to kill coverage of anti-Samsung film

Banks and Wall Street

• Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail—"How HSBC hooked up with drug traffickers and terrorists. And got away with it."
• Don't cry for Wall Street—"Wall Street is really, really unhappy with the president it helped give us — but there's absolutely no sign these guys have learned their lesson."
• Madoff Said JPMorgan Executives Knew Of His Ponzi Scheme For Years
• One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society
• Capital One says it can show up at cardholders' homes, workplaces—"The credit card company's recent contract update includes terms that sound menacing and creepy."

Accountability

• Small-firm lawyer takes on Wall Street and wins, twice
• R.B.S. Said to Place Trader on Leave Amid Currency Investigation—"A senior currency trader in London is the third to be placed on leave by the Royal Bank of Scotland." NYT
• Mortgage bailout now profitable for taxpayers—"U.S. taxpayers have recouped all of the $187 billion they gave mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in one of the most expensive bailouts of the financial crisis."
• UK fraud agency charges 3 ex-Barclays bankers over Libor
• Investment banker jumps to death from JP Morgan’s headquarters in Central—Another one. SCMP

Politics

• No, 71 percent of Obama voters don’t regret voting for him WaPo
• Obama drops Social Security cut
• The best case that the war on poverty has failed—"Fifty years after the launch of the war on poverty, many conservatives say we've failed the war. Maybe we have failed -- but for different reasons." WaPo
• How Tea Party Absolutism Cost The GOP A Huge Win On Entitlements
• 'The Daily Show' Proves Democrats Are Just as Corrupt as Republicans
• Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone?—"On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding Washington, DC like never before. What’s going on?"
• Petition to Split California Into Six States Gets Green Light

GOP

• Conservative group pushes to topple GOP leaders in Congress
• How the GOP Sabotaged Marco Rubio, the Man Who Was Once Its Savior
• GOP Official Doubles Down On Practically Every Offensive Comment He's Made
• State Senator misattributed quotes because they "sounded like something he (Lincoln) would say."
• DeLay: Americans Have Forgotten That God Wrote The Constitution
• 70-Year-Old GOP Candidate In Texas Arrested For Assaulting Man With 'RINO' Signs
• Four Reasons The GOP Has A Huge Advantage In The 2014 Elections

Racism

• Michele Bachmann: Obama Won Because He's Black and America Felt Guilty
• CNN Gets Into Greg Abbott's Face After Tx. GOPer Palled Around With Ted Nugent—"Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott (R) was happy to campaign with conservative troll Ted Nugent this week, despite the fact the rocker once called President Obama a "chimpanzee" and a 'subhuman mongrel.'"
• Tenn. official 'threatened' blacks with skin 'trophy' he saved from 1896 lynching—That's a firing.
• Scott Walker's Former Chief-of-Staff Sent This Insanely Racist Email
• Confederate flag to appear on new Ga. car plates

Bridgegate

• Christie's former aide refuses to comply with subpoena
• Another Christie childhood friend witnessed traffic surge—"A Port Authority executive issued an investigation into new report that a Port Authority police officer -- and Christie pal -- was on the GWB when lanes closed
• 911 Calls Describe 'Total Gridlock,' 'Nightmare' During Fort Lee Traffic Jam
• Maddow Defends Bridge Coverage Following 'Morning Joe' Criticism
• Police Union Implicated in Bridgegate Owed Hundreds of Jobs to Christie

Trouble in Wisconsin

• Investigation Surrounding Scott Walker Even Bigger Than We Thought
• This Could Be the Start of Scott Walker's Bridgegate
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker under fire in campaign finance probe
• Email: Doctor ditched over thong past—"Emails released Wednesday reveal that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker might have been behind the firing of a woman because she was a former thong model." Politico
• Major missteps cost the state jobs

Vote Machinations

• Voter ID cases could let John Roberts destroy Voting Rights Act
• Chief Justice Roberts Was Right: How To Fix The Voting Rights Act
• Voters' Bill of Rights blocked in Ohio
• GOP Group Fixes Fake Websites For Democrats After Press Reports
• GOP operative asks judge to delay trial until after elections—"Claiming key GOP campaign strategies could be 'exposed' before this year's gubernatorial and legislative races, a Queens Republican operative wants his federal corruption trial delayed until after November's elections."